Frank Skinner to guest star in Doctor Who series 8

The casting news for Doctor Who series 8 is getting a little more regular now, and here's the latest: Frank Skinner has a guest role in the new series.

He's going to appear in the episode that's been penned by Jamie Mathieson for the new run. Mathieson, on his blog, wrote that "I was a stand up for a living for quite a few years. When I was trying to figure out how to do it in 1996, his first two stand up videos were part of my boot camp, so there is a nice synchronicity for me to be writing lines for him to deliver nearly twenty years later".

Skinner himself has said that "I love this show. I subscribe to Dr Who magazine, I've got a Tardis ringtone, a five-foot cardboard Dalek in my bedroom and when I got the call saying they wanted me to read for the part, I was in the back of my tour bus watching episode three of The Sensorites. I am beyond excited.".

Steven Moffat added, in a statement from the BBC, that "It's no secret that Frank's been pitching vigorously to get into Doctor Who for a while. He's been volunteering to be 'third monster on the left' as long as I've been in this job. But now, in Jamie Mathieson's sparkling script, we finally have a part that can showcase all of Frank's famous wit and charm. Hopefully he'll get out of my garden now".

Paul Wilmshurst is directing the episode in question, which also features David Bamber, Daisy Beaumont, Janet Henfrey and Christopher Villiers.